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Capitol View®
Tom Scheck

Rock meet Hard place

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There were plenty of stories today detailing the DFL reaction to Gov. Pawlenty's plan for long-term borrowing as a means of reducing the state's budget deficit. Pawlenty wants to borrow $1 billion and pay it back from future annual tobacco payments (the Star Tribune, the Pi Press and MinnPost all have stories from the committee hearing).

Here's the problem...

DFL Rep. Alice Hausman says Democrats don't have many alternatives. After the hearing, Hausman told reporters she's not entirely pleased with the tobacco proposal but worries about finding another $1 billion in money (and they aren't too fond of further spending cuts). Hausman said she'd like to vote for a progressive income tax but said it's unlikely to pass.

"We're being very careful about throwing the whole thing in the garbage because there has to be something that works and gets signed into law." Hausman said.

Republicans seem to sense the difficulty in the DFL ranks b/c their daily mantra has been "Where's your budget?" They make those claims even though the GOP hasn't put forward a budget plan either.

Side note: Former DFL Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe used to circumvent those GOP complaints by forcing an early vote on the governor's proposal. The idea was that the GOP didn't want to be on record voting for the package either. Perhaps that's why the governor's office hasn't put their plan in bill form yet.